Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Chapter 9: Securing Your Wireless Home Network
attack on another computer (the bad guys can launch these attacks remotely
using your computer, which makes them that much harder to track down); or
even as source for spam e-mailing.
What we’re getting at here is that you need to take a few steps to secure any
computer attached to the Internet. If you have a broadband (DSL, satellite,
fiber-optic, or cable modem) connection, you really need to secure your computers.
The high-speed, always-on connections that these services offer make
it easier for a cracker to get into your computer. We recommend that you
take three steps to secure your computers from Internet-based security risks:
� Use and maintain antivirus software. Many attacks on computers don’t
come from someone sitting in a dark room, in front of a computer screen,
actively cracking into your computer. They come from viruses (often
scripts embedded in e-mails or other downloaded files) that take over
parts of your computer’s operating system and do things you don’t want
your computer doing (such as sending a copy of the virus to everyone
in your e-mail address book and then deleting your hard drive). Choose
your favorite antivirus program and use it. Keep the virus definition files
(the data files that tell your antivirus software what’s a virus and what’s
not) up to date. And for heaven’s sake, use your antivirus program!
� Use a personal firewall on each computer. Personal firewalls are programs
that basically look at every Internet connection entering or exiting
your computer and check it against a set of rules to see whether the
connection should be allowed. After you’ve installed a personal firewall
program, wait about a day and then look at the log. You may be shocked
and amazed at the sheer number of attempted connections to your computer
that have been blocked. Most of these attempts are relatively
innocuous, but not all are. If you have broadband, your firewall may
block hundreds of these attempts every day.
We like ZoneAlarm (www.zonealarm.com) for Windows computers as
well as the firewall built into Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows
Vista, and we use the built-in firewall on our Mac OS X computers.
� Turn on the firewall functionality in your router. Whether you use a
separate router or one integrated into your wireless access point, it will
have at least some level of firewall functionality built in. Turn this function
on when you set up your router or access point. (It’s an obvious
option in the configuration program and may well be turned on by
default.) We like to have both the router firewall and the personal firewall
software running on our PCs. It’s the belt-and-suspenders approach,
but it makes our networks more secure.
In Chapter 11, we talk about some situations (particularly when you’re
playing online games over your network) where you need to disable some
of this firewall functionality. We suggest that you do this only when you
must. Otherwise, turn on that firewall — and leave it on.
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